Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company to Perform at the Opalka Gallery

November 19, 2013 at 10:25 am

Returning to the Opalka Gallery at the Sage College of Albany on Sunday, November 24 at 4 p.m. and Friday, December 6 at 7 p.m. after last year’s successful collaboration at that location with sculptor John Van Alstine, the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company (ESDC) has been invited to create site specific performances in the gallery that will interact with and are inspired by An Armory Show, an installation by artists Michael Oatman and Ken Ragsdale. The performances by ESDC will consist of two new dances created by Artistic Director Ellen Sinopoli and her dancers. Music for these dances is by composers Joan Tower and Todd Bartel. Three ESDC dancers have already participated in the installation through Oatman’s video remake of Marcel Duchamp’s 1912 painting “Nude Descending a Staircase”. Admission is free to these dance performances.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITAN ARMORY SHOW
Ken Ragsdale and Michael Oatman
September 6 - December 15, 2013
Opalka Gallery, Sage Colleges Elizabeth Greenberg, Gallery Director

Invoking the 100th anniversary of the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art (aka "The Armory Show"), "An Armory Show" is an installation featuring a curated exhibition of more than 50 artists significant to the 21st century artistic identity of the Capital Region. Ragsdale and Oatman have selected artists for inclusion that have either personally influenced them; stimulated the artistic growth of the region; or have recently injected new life into the scene. The 1913 Armory Show in NYC introduced modern art to America, most notably in Marcel Duchamp's 1912 "Nude Descending a Staircase", which only one year previously had been removed from an exhibition in France at the request of Duchamp's own brothers, Jacques and Raymond, fellow artists in the Puteaux Group. In addition, 2013 marks the 100th anniversary of Duchamp’s first readymade sculpture, 1913’s “Bicycle Wheel”, invoked by Sinopoli’s dancers.

ABOUT THE ELLEN SINOPOLI DANCE COMPANY
ESDC presents the provocative and richly imagined choreography of Artistic Director Ellen Sinopoli and is celebrating its 23rd performance season. As the resident company of The Egg Center for the Performing Arts in Albany, ESDC shares its work with diverse audiences through concerts, showcases, residencies, workshops and educational outreach, seeking to enrich our community by enhancing the appreciation, understanding and experience of contemporary performing arts. Since 1991, Ellen Sinopoli has created over 70 dances and has collaborated with over 25 artists of distinct genres and backgrounds.

The performances and programs of ESDC are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the NYS Legislature.